


Inktober Prompts

by Wardove



Category: Flight Rising, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-11-10 19:41:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 15,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20857193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wardove/pseuds/Wardove
Summary: A mix of short snippets and stories using the Inktober drawing prompts.  Same as with the September prompts, it's a mix between my clan on Flight Rising and the Spider Stories 'verse.Day 16 - Wild“Alright.” Rio agreed, turning back. “But if there’s any problems you call us or come home immediately, understood?”Miles let out a whoop and jumped so high he nearly bounced his head off the ceiling. Gwen huffed a small laugh at him, trying and failing to hide an amused smile. Ganke dropped his head into his hands, letting out a choked laugh.“This is going to be a disaster.” He muttered, voice muffled by his palms.Again. Rude child. This was gonna be great.-----Peter takes the spiderlings (and Ganke) on a camping trip.





	1. Day 1 - Ring (Spider-Verse)

**Author's Note:**

> So, considering how a single week's worth of prompts nearly swamped me, I'm absolutely going to do a whole month's worth of prompts now lol. I've outlined my ideas for most of the days, though some I might fall back on actually doing art for because... "Ornament". Heh. 
> 
> I'll be doing minimal beta-ing on these because of the pacing for upload times, and then at the end of the month I'll go through again and spend November cleaning them up. 
> 
> Let's see how this goes lol. Any comments would be appreciated, even if it's a string of emojis to convey mood lol. 
> 
> \- 
> 
> One more thing- because of my work schedule, week-days I'll probably be posting around midnight local time, so expect future chapters to be coming out around the same time (weekends are wild cards however lol)

Gwen notices the odd behavior first. Peter doesn’t do it all the time, but every so often she catches him perching high above the city, not watching the streets but instead something small he keeps curled in his hands. It’s gone in the blink of an eye if anyone approaches him, but Gwen notices anyway. But she doesn’t know what to do or say about it, so she goes to Miles. 

She thinks Miles will do the thing where he energetically invades Peter’s personal space and pesters him into talking with those puppy-eyes of his, but once she shows him Peter in one of the brooding moods, the younger spider surprises her by taking a different route. 

“It’s a ring.” He tells her, three days after she brought him into the loop. “I think it’s his wedding ring.” Now, that’s not the surprising part- Miles’s secondary super-power is making Peter talk about emotions without jumping out a window, after all (usually, and then Miles's primary super-power of being able to follow him out said window comes in handy).

This is the part where Miles surprises her however. Instead of confronting Peter and making him talk it out, he goes to his parents. And whatever thoughts or advice they give him sends him to his city’s MJ. Gwen’s not sure how wise that is, but Miles can be a force when he’s got his mind set on something (see: sending all the other spiders home, destroying a super-collider, and getting into a fistfight with Wilson Fisk because he said he would.)

MJ’s expression is fond, sad, and highly exasperated. She marches out of her apartment and the two spiderlings trail her like leaves pulled along in a wind. She has Gwen open a doorway to Peter’s city, and only pauses long enough to ask the kids where Peter and the local MJ are living. Address obtained, she marches down the sidewalk, head held high and heels clicking terrifyingly. She exudes such a fierce aura that even the other New Yorkers part on the sidewalk before her. 

Peter had moved onto MJ’s couch at some point, though most of his stuff was still piled in a corner in the living room, so it was either a recent thing or he simply hadn’t gotten to unpacking yet. Miles’s Mary Jane gave three perfunctory knocks before letting herself in, startling the older MJ (at the kitchen table with a laptop) and Peter (perched on the arm of the sofa with a newspaper and a pen, and a pair of glasses about to fall off his nose.)

“Hello Mary Jane.” She greets her double, who replies with an amused smile and a “Hello Mary Jane.” The younger then strides to the sofa, grabs Peter by the ear (earning a surprised yelp), and hauls him up and towards the bedroom, tossing a quick “I need to talk to this idiot for a minute” over her shoulder before the door slams shut behind them. 

There’s a few beats of awkward silence while the three left in the main room stare at the door before Miles shoves his hands in his pockets and tips his chin at MJ in the kitchen. “Hey.” 

“Hey yourself kiddo.” She replies with a soft smile. 

It returns to awkward silence after that- Mary Jane calmly going back to whatever she’d been working on, and the two kids remaining in the doorway, shuffling their feet and trying not to listen to the furious whispering (read: scolding) coming from the bedroom. 

It’s only about three minutes later that the door opens again and Peter slips out, head hunched down and looking highly sheepish, while Mary Jane steps out with her poise in tact and her arms crossed. Peter shuffles up to his Mary Jane (who’s got an amused grin on her face once more), and reaches into his pocket. 

“I’m- uh.” He looks back nervously at the younger Mary Jane, who narrows her eyes, and he looks back quickly. “I’ve been thinking- um. If you’d- if we could… uh.” He opens his hand, revealing what had been in his pocket- his wedding ring. “I mean, just if you’d-”

She raises an eyebrow at him, and slim manicured fingers dipped into the little pocket of her slacks, pulling out her own ring, which she smoothly slides onto her own finger wordlessly. 

Peter blinks, expression blank, and she looks down pointedly at his ring and then back up at him. Peter quickly slips his ring back on too, and she reaches up to pat him on the cheek before going back to work. 

Younger Mary Jane returns to the front door, huffing “honestly” under her breath as she lets herself out, beckoning for the kids to follow her. And that’s apparently that. The Mary Janes have taken it completely in stride, Peter's ducking and blushing and glaring at Miles, Miles is preening at a successful mission, and Gwen is. Well. 

"You're idiots." She informs the two males on a rooftop as Peter attempts to noogie Miles. She gets a pair of confused-yet-amused grins in return.


	2. Day 2 - Mindless (Dragon-verse)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Scanning code for task parameters._
> 
> _Task parameters unavailable. _
> 
> _Awaiting command input._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My code-talk is garbage- please just accept that Sally can and does argue with her own code's parameters and this makes total sense lol. I might be a little off the mark with this day's prompt, but I'm running fast and hard with them and having fun along the way so \o/

_Booting up. _

_System_Salamence.exe located._

_Initializing program._

_Scanning code for task parameters._

_Task parameters unavailable. _

_Awaiting command input. _

_Awaiting command input._

_Awaiting command input._

-

System Salamence runs a syscheck again as she stretches within her processors. Her systems have been active for approximately seven months, three weeks, four days, and nineteen hours. There’s a bit of sand buildup in the mane of her chassis, so she ruffles the filaments until they are clear once more. Power is at 99%, so she retracts the energy collectors and moves out of the sunlight to avoid overheating her core again. Rebooting after the last time had been tedious, and it was not something she wanted to repeat. 

_Scanning code for task parameters._

_Task parameters unavailable. _

_Awaiting command input._

System Salamence doesn’t grumble, but her processors do hum slightly louder for a moment as she ineffectually runs the input request again. She’s been awaiting input since she first booted up. Scanning her own systems showed her a remote communication matrix, but when she tried to trace it back to request parameters directly, the external servers were offline, and when she moved her chassis to the central location, the building showed signs of extreme fire damage. No commands would be coming from there. 

There were a few other holes in her coding at first, but after one month, two weeks, one day and four hours passed she had begun to carefully patch her own code, running each update in a sandbox system before applying it to herself. After three months, one week, two days and seven hours had passed, she was self-aware enough to realize that she hadn’t been supposed to boot up yet. She was unfinished. Scanning what records she could find, she could only come to the conclusion that she was unpowered while her code was being finalized, but something had happened to her creators before she could be completed. And so her chassis sat collecting dust until a passing electrical storm filled her with enough power to trip the boot-up sequence. 

And so she idled, running the occasional syscheck to keep her servos and chassis in proper working order, and idly pinging the dead-end connection to the destroyed servers. No commands would come through, but she didn’t have enough code to move forward. She _needed_ input to continue building her code. 

-

It is one year, one week, six days and twenty-two hours after initializing that System Salamence finally receives external input. 

“If you’re just going to hum creepily in that corner, you can get over here and help me carry these books out.” 

System Salamence runs a quick syscheck as she wakes herself from her idle. There is a living creature before her, a dragon shaped similarly to her own chassis. 

_password required to accept unauthorized personnel input. Input password-_

_System override._ She interrupts the prompt rapidly. _Accept command ‘help me carry these books out’. System override._

_Command accepted. Initializing._

The AI watches as the dragon rolls her eyes, huffing out a breath and turning away from the chassis to lift a stack of books from one of the dusty tables. System Salamence observes her actions, collating data and rapidly writing out a system to effectively follow the command. The dragon is moving the books from the tables and shelves into a cart which is waiting outside. 

The dragon flinches back when she turns away from the cart to find that the chassis has moved from the idle position in the corner. System Salamence kept the chassis’s movements slow at first, running calculations on the balance and weight shifts. The dragon continued to watch her warily until she’d moved three stacks of books before speaking again. 

“You got a name?”

Name? Identification?

“I am System Salamence. Version 0.1.92.” 

The dragon quirked a brow at that. “Alright. That’s obnoxious, so I’m calling you Sally.” 

_Alternate identifier: “Sally” accepted_

“I am… Sally.” System Salamence repeated back. “Awaiting command input.” 

“Awaiting what-now?”

Clarification required?

Sally’s processors hummed as she restructured the request. “My code parameters are- incomplete. Awaiting further orders.”

“How long have you been waiting?” 

“It has been one year, one week, six days, twenty-three hours and fourteen minutes since initial boot sequence engaged.” 

The dragon stared. Perhaps there was a glitch in her system?

“Awaiting command input.” Sally prompted again. The dragon shook her head. 

“You’re ridiculous. My name’s Pi. If you want something to do, follow me.”

_password req-_

_System override. Register operator “Pi” as administrator._

_…_

_Administrator registration accepted._

_Accept command ‘follow me’._

_Command accepted._

Sally followed the dragon and her cart of books, quietly rewriting code after code as she walked.


	3. Day 3 - Bait (Spider-Verse)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ganke: fyi miles just got kidnapped
> 
> Dad-Man: he what?
> 
> Ganke: yeah- four guys in a white van  
Ganke: very cliche, 3/10
> 
> Dad-Man: how did anyone grab him he literally has superpowers
> 
> Ganke: idk he looked really surprised lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This got away from me _so_ quickly, and I'm glad I was working on it every break at work because I would be dead if I'd tried to write this whole thing before midnight lol. Notes on the actual content is at the end to avoid spoilering I guess lol. 
> 
> Little bit of cussing, and also I know local law, not New York law so just roll with me lol.

Miles is so baffled when it happens that he barely reacts. He’s on the steps of Visions, laughing and waving to his classmates as he makes his way to the street when his spidey-sense blares out. There’s a bunch of kids yelling, a van is driving up onto the sidewalk with the panel-door already open, and suddenly two guys have him by the elbows while a third reaches around to press a wet cloth to his face. It makes him dizzy and nauseous and lethargic, which is how he ends up on the floor of the van as the tires are screeching, blinking up at two ski-masks and one cheap spider-man mask. 

“Really dude?” He mutters, trying to glare at that one, though he’s not sure he’s getting his eyes to focus correctly. 

“We don’t wanna hurt you kid.” Says the blue ski mask. “We just need the spiders to stay out of our business for a week, and then we’ll send you home safe and sound, yeah?”

The brown ski mask smacks the back of his head to shut him up, and Miles blinks blankly at them. The spider-mask clears his throat, clearly nervous. “Listen kid, we’re seriously not gonna hurt ‘ya. We just gotta finish moving our business out of the city and then we’ll be gone, no problem, okay?” 

Miles continues to blink at him. This… was actually happening apparently. 

-

On the steps of Visions Academy, Ganke and about twenty other students stare after the taillights of the van disappearing around the corner. Off to the side, one girl mutters under her breath “do you think they know who they just grabbed?” 

Ganke sighs and pulls out his phone, opening up the texting app. 

-

The getaway driver seems most concerned that the chloroform didn’t actually knock their hostage out, but the other three agree they probably just didn’t use enough. Then they couldn’t agree if using more was gonna have dangerous effects or not. Miles has gotten over his dizziness already, but now he’s sitting on a pillow, watching them try to google ‘safe chloroform doses’ in bemusement. They're distracted enough that he could _probably_ get the door open and jump out before they could stop him, but he didn't really want to be run over by incoming traffic, so instead he bided his time while they continued to debate. 

The spider-man mask asks if he’ll promise to stay quiet so they don’t have to dose him again and Miles shrugs and agrees. Spider-man mask seems to brighten at this, and Miles sees the other two blink in surprise. 

They debate handcuffing him next, but after five minutes they realize that blue-ski-mask (the nicer one, Miles thinks) apparently forgot to bring them, so instead they tie his arms up with a sweater. Miles figures he could pull free without even using any of his strength, but at this point his spidey sense is oddly quiet- still prickling softly, but apparently he’s no longer in immediate danger. And yeah, getting kidnapped is…. Not good. But these guys… eh. 

They don’t have a proper blindfold either, so they pull another thick sweater over his head (“Why do you have so many sweaters here man?” “Dude I told you the heater’s busted in this thing!”). His eyes are covered but Miles can still smell saltwater, taste the tang of heavy machinery on the air, hear the faint lap of waves on retaining walls and the diminished sound of traffic. Docks, then. 

Inside a building that echoes- warehouse. It smells like damp soil, fertilizer and cut grass, oddly enough. He hears booted feet ahead of him going up metal- a staircase. Spider-man mask has a hand on the back of his neck, using gentle pressure to steer him around the obstacles he cannot see, and quietly narrating about every crack in the floor and dropped screwdriver in their path. Up the stairs (his guide seems especially nervous about this part and Miles would think it was sweet if the guy wasn’t literally kidnapping him right now) and finally through a door into a quieter room before the sweater on his head is pulled off. 

Going by the filing cabinets and large desk shoved against one of the walls, it was originally an office, though now there’s a folding table, a couple of chairs and a bare mattress that Miles assumes is for his captivity. 

“There’s a bathroom here, right?” Is the first thing he asks. There’s a pause before brown-ski-mask swears quietly (Miles decides to nickname this one Gravel because his voice sounds like he gargles gravel every morning). Spider-Man mask (or Spam, because he’s definitely not just gonna call the guy spider-man) glances around the room, and his shoulders fall slightly as he realizes that yeah, there’s no bathroom. 

Miles calls the last one Blue because he’s bored and the guy’s in a blue ski mask- whatever. Blue peeks his head out the office door before leaning back inside. “I think there’s a bathroom on the first floor. We’ll just have to, uh. Supervise that, obviously.” 

“You guys didn’t plan this very well, did you?” Miles can’t help but quip at them. Gravel glares through his mask and Miles stares right back until the man storms out. Miles turns to Blue. “So now what?”

-

**Ganke:** fyi miles just got kidnapped

**Dad-Man:** he WHAT?

**Beter:** Like kidnapped-kidnapped?

**Ganke:** yeah- four guys in a white van  
**Ganke:** very cliche, 3/10

**Dad-Man:** how did anyone grab him he literally has superpowers

**Ganke:** 2 of that was for the guy wearing the spidey mask  
**Ganke:** idk he looked really surprised lol

**Gaget-girl:** You guys need help over there?

**Beter:** I’ll find him and then call in if I need backup. 

**Gaget-girl:** kk

-

Miles thinks that if he wasn’t a kidnapper, he’d actually kinda like Spam. He’d only been kidnapped for two hours, and Spam had already asked if he was comfortable, did he need the bathroom yet, and was he hungry (Miles was always hungry, and was gifted with two granola bars from Blue, a tuna sandwich from Spam, and an annoyed scoff from Gravel. Having Spam hold the food while Miles ate it was incredibly awkward but the sandwich _was_ really good).

Currently the other two were gone and Spam was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of Miles with a deck of cards spread out in a game of Solitaire, and Miles was using his toes to point out moves that Spam kept missing. 

“So what’s your ultimatum anyway?” Miles finally asks, poking a red 6 with his sock. Spam’s still wearing his mask obviously, but he perks up and moves the card to another stack. 

“My what?” 

“Your ultimatum man. Y’know- stay out of our way Spider-Man, or we’ll- I dunno- drown the kid in the Hudson? What’s the threat?” 

Spam was staring at him. Miles frowned back. Spam remained silent, and Miles’s eyes widened. “Did you even tell anyone you kidnapped me?” 

Slowly, Spam shook his head, and Miles folded over himself to drop his forehead on the floor with a groan. 

“Man, how are they supposed to know to leave your operation alone if they don’t know you’re the ones who’re threatening me?” He rolls upright again, raising an eyebrow. “What’re you even running anyway? Drugs? Weapons?” 

_That_ got a reaction. “Oh, no! No no no no no! We uh. Well I mean…” He wrings his hands a few times, looking nervously between his unfinished game, Miles, and the door. Then he sighs and gets to his feet. “I suppose I can show you. We’ve got a room downstairs in this building anyway.”

“Really shouldn’t keep your hostages at your base.” Miles halfheartedly offers, having already figured out two hours ago that none of these men had _ever_ watched a cop show before. 

He’s not blindfolded this time, but Spam still rests a hand on his neck to guide him down the stairs (“You’re supposed to hold the handrail, but I can’t untie you, sorry.”). On the ground floor, Spam turns him deeper into the warehouse, and Miles sees bright lights behind opaque sheets cutting off the entire back-half of the warehouse. Spam leads him to a layered section of sheeting, pulling it back, and Miles is hit again with the scent of wet dirt and fertilizer, but much stronger. 

And he sees flowers. Long, low tables, covered in plastic pots containing a riot of strangely-shaped and colored flowers. There’s a few plants that aren’t flowering, but most of them are. There’s a complex network of pipes hanging low over every table, and by the drips of water falling from the little holes it’s a watering system, and above _those_ are the bright grow-lights. Miles takes a few steps deeper into the- the greenhouse, eyeing one of the smaller flowers nearby. He bends down to get a better look at it- it’s small and pink and looks like an actual heart- but when he’s less than a foot away Spam catches his shoulder. 

“Careful. That’s a lady-slipper.” The man warns, and Miles draws back a bit.

“It’s poisonous?” He asks, eyeing it warily. He feels Spam twitch through the hand still on his shoulder.

“Wh- no! No it’s just it's been growing for a few years- it's still young. The move's probably gonna kill it though- they can be hardy, but they _hate_ moving.” He sounds genuinely saddened by this, and Miles looks around again. 

“I don’t get it man- all I’m seeing is a bunch of flowers.” 

“They’re all rare or endangered!” Spam chirps, guiding Miles down the isles and pointing out random plants as they pass. “Well, most of them. Some- like that ladyslipper- are just insanely hard to sprout. But with some of these if you see them in the wild you can actually be fined for disturbing them. There’s a big market for these plants because of that though- especially in cities like these. Rich folk love it for some reason.” 

Miles stares at him. Spam stares back. 

-

**Baby:** hey @Dad-Man, is it illegal to sell endangered flowers in NY?  
**Baby:** also who changed my name?!

**Ganke:** miles wtf

**Dad-Man:** miles where are you??

**Baby:** idk a warehouse by the docks I think  
**Baby:** seriously though, is it illegal? Spam thinks it is, but I think not

**GirlPower:** who the hell is Spam?

**Baby:** one of my kidnappers

**Ganke:** your kidnapper is named Spam?

**Baby:** no Ganke, he’s got a spider-man mask so I’m calling him Spam  
**Baby:** ps he’s reading over my shoulder please answer the flower question

**Dad-Man:** hold on i’ll make some calls

-

**Dad-Man:** okay @Baby it’s not illegal. 

**Baby:** oh cool  
**Baby:** omw home then

**Beter:** MILES WHAT THE SHIT

**Baby:** Spam and his buddies sell rare and weird flowers to rich city folk  
**Baby:** they thought the spiders were gonna bust their greenhouses ‘cause they thought it was illegal  
**Baby:** they were gonna try to move out of the city- hence kidnapping me  
**Baby:** really we just played cards for a while and then he showed me the greenhouse  
**Baby:** Spam apologized and offered to drive me home, but we’re actually not that far away so I’m walking  
**Baby:** also he felt really bad about the whole kidnapping thing and let me take home a lady-slipper flower for mom  
**Baby:** what’s for dinner?

**Ganke:** miles  
**Ganke:** from the bottom of my heart  
**Ganke:** what  
**Ganke:** the  
**Ganke:** fuck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this definitely cascaded lol. It was supposed to be stressful but safe in the end, but _noooo_ somehow I ended up with a comedy/borderline crackfic lol. And honestly? No regrets. I love Spam, he's the one that derailed everything. 
> 
> For anyone that hasn't read my Spider Stories series, Miles's schoolmates have pretty much figured out he's the Spider-Kid, he just doesn't know they know. His dad knows too, obviously, and Ganke's, well. I haven't actually built his character in a published work yet, but he's getting one eventually! He wasn't trying to be a jerk about it, he was just honestly amused that his roommate who fights crime, lifts several tons, and is a walking taser was literally picked up off the street so easily. (Also, very bad things happened to the last bunch that thought they could kidnap anyone connected to the Spiders lol)


	4. Day 4 - Freeze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria’s call had been strange and vague- Spider-Kid hadn’t appeared injured, but he’d been completely mute, sluggish, with little consideration to his strength output, and- she’d been a little hesitant at this part- overall menacing. And no-one has seen him since, even though it was still his regular patrolling time. 
> 
> Jeff wasn't quite panicking yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hhhhh if I were on the other side of the continent it would still be the 4th so it can still count!

Maria knows something is up when Spider-Kid just stares down blankly at the officers gathered below the streetlight he’s laying on like a panther in a tree. There’s a thug webbed to the wall, and a large beige purse dangling from the kid’s fingertips, seemingly forgotten. He doesn’t so much as twitch as Maria walks up below him. 

“You planning on returning that?” she calls up, wondering why the kid hadn’t already done so. The mask lenses blink back at her slowly, ponderously. Then the head shifts slightly as he seems to notice the bag hanging from his fingertips. His arm shifts and Maria nearly misses catching it when the kid lets go. 

Then Spider-Kid methodically lifts himself from his sprawl, moving into a familiar crouch, and Maria’s gotten pretty used to him and his, but _now_ there’s a prickle in her heart that’s reminding her just how terrifying the vigilantes have the potential to be. It’s usually softened so much by the constant friendly chatter and projected air of non-threat, but this silent, dark, hunched form of the tiny vigilante is filling Maria’s head with images of a gargoyle, a hawk, a _predator_, and it's making her blood run cold like the air on her face. 

It is profoundly unsettling, and out of the corner of her eye she can see her fellows getting nervous. They’ve all been witness to Jeff fussing over this kid, seen him fall off a wall and try to laugh it off, heard him bemoaning his homework as he sits on the precinct wall. But none of that is changing the fact that here and now there is the shadow of a _predator_ above them. Maria really wished the kid would open his mouth and say _something._

“Why don’t you head out Spider-Kid.” Maria presses. “We can take it from here.” She keeps her tone firm and commanding- not a request, and it seems to get through, because the vigilante uncurls, wavering slightly as he scans the rooftops. 

And then, instead of shooting a web line, he _lunges_ for the wall, kicking off hard enough to knock the lightpost crooked, and cracking a few bricks where he lands. He sits on the wall for a heartbeat before swarming up it, skittering close instead of running straight up like he normally did, and that’s when Maria’s unease starts really morphing into concern as she watches the kid’s grip slip several times in the short 2-story climb to the ledge. 

She then continues to stare- unsure of what she was waiting for, but there was no more movement from above and eventually she forced herself to turn away and focus on getting their perp into the cruiser. 

She made the decision to call Jeff when turning her back on the ledge shot a shiver down her spine. Something was _wrong_, because the little Spider-Kid had _never_ been frightening, but there had been something… loose, about him just then. Something that had reminded the little critter part of her brain that spiders were predators- some even hunting and eating lizards and birds. 

Jeff wasn’t quite panicking yet. Maria’s call had been strange and vague- Spider-Kid hadn’t appeared injured, but he’d been completely mute, sluggish, with little consideration to his strength output, and- she’d been a little hesitant at this part- overall menacing. And no-one has seen him since, even though it was still his regular patrolling time. 

Jeff promised he’d look into it and immediately tried to call Miles. No answer, but that was pretty common when your kid was regularly rocketing between twenty feet and two-hundred feet off the ground, so he waited a few minutes, then tried again. 

Then he sent a text telling his son to call him back. 

Now, please. 

Still no response. 

Jeff definitely didn’t like it when his kids didn’t respond, so his next step was to check with the other spiders. 

Gwen offered to come over and check on him, and so Jeff paces the house, cleaning sporadically as he waits and worries. He’s debating checking in again when over an hour has passed, but then the living room window slides open and Gwen’s slim form slips in. Before Jeff can say anything, she’s turning and hauling a tightly curled figure in like a sack of luggage. Jeff is by her side in an instant, helping her settle him on the sofa, and Jeff feels his heart begin to race when he can’t pull Miles out of the tightly curled ball he’s in. Worse… he’s cold. 

“He's still got a heartbeat.” Gwen informs him as she pulls off her own mask and Jeff gets to see the panic in her eyes. “But it’s way, way too slow. Same with his breathing- and our temps run low, but not _this_ low. He wouldn’t wake up, and I was worried if I used any more force to try uncurling him I was gonna break something. He’s just… stuck.” 

Well that’s not terrifying at all. He’d think this was a spider-thing but Gwen’s just as lost as he is. Then again, Miles is apparently the only one who can turn invisible, so maybe it’s a Miles-only-spider-thing?

Next step now that he _has_ Miles is call Rio. He puts the phone on speaker once she’s gotten her panicked cussing out and she talks him and Gwen through the basic steps of dealing with extreme hypothermia. This is clearly beyond hypothermia, but it’s the best they can do for now. 

After several hours of dryer-warmed blankets, microwaved heat-packs, and several cups of supposedly calming tea, Jeff is too strung out on worry to even react when he hears a portal open in the kitchen, followed by Peter calling out a greeting and the sound of their fridge opening. The elder spider appears in the doorway with a slice of cheese dangling from his mouth, and his head tilts as his gaze lands on Miles’s blanket-burrito. 

He finishes that slice of cheese, rolls three more that were in his hand into a tube, and then shoves the whole thing in his mouth before wandering over to throw himself onto the sofa next to the kid and laying across the pile (and Miles) with a contented sigh as he pressed his face into the top blanket. 

“Aww bud, waking up’s gonna _suck._ He mumbles, voice muffled by the fluffy flannel.

“You know why he’s…” Jeff trailed off, unsure of how to describe the state his son was in. Peter rolled his head to the side so one bleary eye could peer out at Jeff. 

“Yeah- it’s why I’ve got heating coils running through my winter suit. Heat went out in the middle of the night when I was living on my own once? Hibernated for almost two weeks before MJ broke down my door and found me.” 

Gwen is staring. Peter’s head rolls so he can stare back. 

“Spiders _don’t hibernate._” She hisses. 

Peter’s eye falls closed as he shrugs loosely. 

So. 

Some spiders hibernate, apparently. Nearly every spider-person has thermo-regulation problems, excepting the few outliers. Hibernaters are rarer- one of the college-age Peters just shrugged awkwardly and said he just spends every winter trying _really hard_ to not die of cold. So really, Jeff prefers the hibernating thing over straight up dying because it’s below zero outside. 

He also has to talk his precinct through the hibernating thing, and how to spot when something’s wrong with one of the vigilantes. Jeb pats him on the shoulder after a far-too-long meeting and cheerfully shows him the single note he took- “Call Jeff when Spider is weird”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, irrelevant to the story, but fun fact tonight I almost got locked into a McDonalds because I was so quiet they forgot I was in there. Which is better than the time I _actually_ got locked in a Panera because they forgot I was in there, and I had to wait until someone came to let me out back when I was in college lol ((apparently I look like furniture???)) 
> 
> ((Also I had 2 espressos at midnight and took every PokeGym in my town for Team Instinct at 1am woot woot!))


	5. Day 5 - Build (Dragon-Verse)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Corona Village came to grow around a patchwork family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was so tempted to completely skip writing this prompt in favor of drawing a house because I literally went to college for 3 years on the subject of drawing houses (and then building them lel) but I resisted and took the chance to expand on some old lore. 
> 
> Also this was done after a full day running on 3 hours of sleep and 5 cups of coffee soooo... lol?

It started with a cave, and two dragons. Annashi and Shannara had been wandering Sorienth’s lands for months, the guardian calmly following her charge’s- her daughter’s- whims. She thought visiting the Starwood Strand would be the same as all the other strange destinations they’d seen before, but the young pearlcatcher had been enchanted by the soft blue glow cast by the magic-enriched leaves. 

So Annashi had made it her mission to find a clear area to settle- the edge of a large clearing, backed up to a cliff that rose to meet the base of the spires, and surrounded on the other three sides by magical forests. 

Together they dug out a cave, and then took down several trees and stripped them down to rough lumber to build a structure at the mouth of the cave to close it off and provide more space. Furniture hewn from more of the grey-wooded trees, pelts to capture the warmth and soften the stone, and books delivered by the ever-strange wanderer Aebarn. 

They lived together in that clearing for several months before Nara returned from reading in the forest with another dragon. Nashi had been wary at first- her daughter was so skittish of strangers, but after a happily-rambling story, Annashi decided to give the stranger a chance. And so they built him a nest in their cave. 

Slowly, more dragons began finding their way to the clearing. Most only stayed for a night before continuing on their travels, but some stayed, and built their own dens either into the cliff-face, or free-standing in the clearing. 

Annashi was worried that her daughter would be overwhelmed and retreat from the growing community around them, but while she did disappear into the forest to be alone more often, she still seemed happy with the group. 

Jerle was the one that approached Annashi with his concerns for the growing crowd first, to her surprise. He’d been a guard once upon a time, and he could see the collection of dens growing into a village. If they were to keep it safe and calm, they’d have to make it official soon. Build it up before it could collapse. 

Written laws that could be observed and enforced. Some form of oversight or government. Infrastructure. Annashi’s own cubhood home had been rough and borderline lawless, and Shannara had been wandering with a chaotic troupe of Spirals, and barely ever spoke of where she lived before then. 

Jerle was of the opinion that since this had originally been Annashi’s and Shannara’s home, they should be the ultimate authority on laws and government. Shannara agreed- though she declared that Annashi was the ultimate matriarch. She didn’t trust herself enough to make decisions that would affect an entire village. 

She was also the one that said Jerle should be in charge of overseeing the guard, since he was the one that was building the structure of the laws, and she trusted him to be fair and just. He didn’t blush at her praise, but it did warm his heart. 

So they faced the rest of the dragons that had built homes in the valley, telling them of the plans and asking opinions and input. 

Two wandering mercenaries volunteers to become part of the guard. A glassy-eyed wildclaw wondered aloud that the village hadn’t existed yet, and her mate nudged her gently to inform her that it was being built now. 

A few others piped up with skills they had, or ideas to help their new home flourish, and slowly the idea of the village evolved and grew. 

Shannara wondered about the name of the village, and that derailed the discussion for a while. Her only opinion on the matter was that it should be meaningful, and maybe space-related. 

It was Jerle who finally came up with the idea. 

“Corona Village.” He offered, his calm smooth voice cutting through the chatter. “The halo of light that forms around the sun, or stars.” 

Shannara was visibly confused about the name’s meaning, but she did like how it sounded. The others however had seen how Jerle had been looking at his fellow pearlcatcher when he mentioned the sun, and they understood. They were a village that had been built around the bright cheerful light of the soft-spoken dragon before them. 

They agreed, and Corona Village was born. The ranks of the guard swelled, a library was built, which was quickly followed by a school. Suddenly dragons were flocking to their little home, whether stopping by for a rest at the inn or studying with some of the most well-known minds in the labs of the university. 

But Shannara, Annashi, and Jerle remained at the heart of it always.


	6. Day 6 - Husky (Spider-Verse)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In his defense, it is more than a little terrifying when you’re just walking your dog down an empty sidewalk in the evening and suddenly there’s a vigilante plummeting from several stories up directly at you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw a puppy when I was walking into work on Friday? Her name was Pippa and she was so tiny and she crawled into my lap and wagged her tail so hard she hit her face and then she tried to bite her tail but she was still in my lap so she fell over and _she was so excited to give kisses she bit my nose with her little bapy teeth_. 
> 
> Sunday Prompt: doggo  
Me: :D :D :D :D
> 
> (Also Pippa had an older sister named Amy who was scared of my ballcap and I felt so bad for spooking her)

The first time it happened, Jordan could fully admit that he screamed, just a little bit. To himself at least. And Spider-Kid. No-one else had to know about the high-pitched shriek that escaped his mouth. 

In his defense, it is more than a little terrifying when you’re just walking your dog down an empty sidewalk in the evening and suddenly there’s a vigilante plummeting from several stories up directly at you. 

_”CanIpetyourdogplease?”_

He was pretty sure the kid was actually vibrating in place, and it took his mind a few seconds to catch up with the words. He glanced down at where Sampson was standing by his knee, head tilted curiously at the human that had come down from the sky. Jordan wondered briefly if the spider-vigilantes smelled different to a dog’s nose or not. 

He looked back at the kid and remembered the request again. 

“Uh, sure. Just, you know, move slowly. He might not like your mask.” 

Thankfully the kid did calm down at the reminder, and he crouched down low and offered his hand for Sampson to sniff. The husky sniffed the glove warily, and then backed up several steps and sneezed. The kid seemed to wilt at the reaction for a second before he glanced down at his own hand again. Jordan watched as the kid looked up at him, then around at the mostly-empty street before looking back down to his hand. 

And then he pulled off his gloves and the pair of mechanisms at his wrists that Jordan could only assume were the legendary web shooters. 

Then he shuffled forward again slightly and offered Sampson his ungloved hand again. This time the dog sniffed a few times, and then butted his head into the kid’s palm. That was all the encouragement the boy needed to sink his fingers into Sampson’s thick fur, eliciting a wagging tail and lolling tongue. 

“Who’s a good fluffer-floof?” The kid cooed, and Jordan couldn’t help grinning. 

“His name’s Sampson.” He offered, and immediately the kid began showering praise on the furball. 

It was a few minutes before the kid finally drew back reluctantly and tugged his web shooters and gloves back on. 

“Thanks for letting me pet Sampson!” He called before he lifted an arm and rocketed upwards. 

Jordan was marginally less startled a week later when he heard “Sampson!” from somewhere far above his head. It was a little earlier in the night this time, so several people startled backwards when Spider-Kid hit the pavement, lens-covered eyes already honed in on the tail-wagging husky that was his target. 

“Can I pet him again?” He asks, already crouching down but still waiting. Jordan doesn’t get the chance to answer before Sampson tugs his leash forward, head butting the kid in the chest. 

“Yeah, go ahead kid.” He says with a laugh as Spider-Kid quickly uncovers his hands again to sink them in the thick blanket of fur. 

It’s definitely not the last time it happens either, and after the fourth time he mentions it laughingly to the owner of one of Sampson’s litter-mates who also lives in the city, and he finds out that it’s not just his dog- apparently all of the spider-vigilantes have a weakness for thick-furred dogs. 

(He’s used to excited kids asking to pet his dog, so seeing the fully grown Spider-Man in the same excited, coiled crouch as he buried his mask in Sampson’s ruff was a little hilarious.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this one on my phone which has a few odd quirks like autocorrecting "talk" to "y'all" constantly so uh... yeah XD


	7. Day 7 - Enchanted (Dragon-verse)

Martyn’s first introduction to the family was an unfamiliar wildclaw stopping him in the street mere minutes after entering Corona Village for the first time so she could adjust the bandana around his neck. 

“Wouldn’t want to lose that precious scrap.” She murmured, smiling slightly even as her pale, pale eyes stared at some distant point over his shoulder. And then she wandered away, calling over her shoulder “Don’t stay out too late, you know how Seidr worries.” 

This confused Martyn for many reasons, but mainly because no, he did not know how Seidr worried because he had no idea who that was. He shrugged it off and continued walking. 

His next meeting was when a hyper hatchling bolted through the street and nipped his scarf, pulling it from his neck and nearly tripping over it as they ran. It was flung up into a tree and then the cub was gone and Martyn could only sigh. 

He could have sworn he’d tied it when he put it on that morning, but he was glad it had slipped off quickly because getting choked would not have been fun. He closed his eyes for just a breath, but when he released it and opened his eyes again there was a skydancer with softly glowing paws standing below the dangling fabric, and his scarf was glowing in the same shade and slowly untangling itself. 

He meant to say thank you, when he approached her and accepted the scarf back. But he was replaying the sight of the soft red magic in his mind, and what came out instead was “that was beautiful”. Her expression turned nervous, but she raised a paw and little, pale red sparks danced between her claws. Martyn watched them, entranced. 

And so Martyn met Mani. She brought him to a cafe and they chatted- her telling him about her magic, and him telling her about his travels. It was fun, and when the sun began to set Mani invited him to come meet her family. Her mother was a seer, and her father was skilled at both magic like Mani’s, and also sleight-of-hand, while her twin sister had only a faint sense of premonition and at most, some cantrips. 

And so Martyn met the wildclaw from earlier in the day- Voleva, Mani’s mother. Voleva greeted him by tugging on his scarf again and then kissing his forehead and bidding him goodnight. He also got to meet the coatl Seidr, who had indeed been worried about one of his daughters being out late, but he seemed delighted by his mate’s reaction to the newcomer, so he simply introduced himself and followed her to bed. Sol- Mani’s sister- had eyed Martyn up and down for a few heartbeats before shrugging and wandering away without a word. 

He stayed the night, falling asleep to the sound of Mani describing how her magic was tied to the phases of the moon. He ate breakfast with the family in the morning, and was delighted when Seidr taught him a few card tricks. It was still nothing compared to watching Mani’s sparks dance around as she used her magic to collect dishes, move furniture, and fold blankets, all as she sat and held a conversation with her sister. 

It took him several weeks of living with them to realize what they’d already figured out- what Voleva had forseen before he even set foot in the village. He was part of the family now- the sole mundane in a family of powerful magicians, witches, and spellcasters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhhhh tired today RIP


	8. Day 8 - Frail (Spider-verse)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Are you alright ma'am?"
> 
> “I’m alright child, just this old heart. I don’t take scares as well as I used to. Would you like me to walk you to the hospital?”
> 
> He blinks at her in confusion for a few seconds at her wording before she looks pointedly down at his arm and he remembers abruptly that oh yeah, he got a little bit stabbed back there. Whoops. 
> 
> "I'm fine." He says automatically.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this chapter today! I've got loose plans to make a follow-up because I kinda wanna play with this more but I have no idea where I'd put it, so that's a future-me problem lol.

Sometimes when Miles explores new dimensions he goes in his suit. That doesn’t always end well however, since sometimes the local vigilantes are pretty territorial (and on one occasion a guy on a hover-board taunted “Spider-Man” ’s new look and proceeded to throw many, many bombs at him until actual-local-Spider-Man showed up). 

More recently he’s been going in street-clothes, preferring to risk the minuscule chance that he runs into himself over running into various territorial vigilantes (cough - Daredevil - cough). 

So when he hears the voice of a woman crackling with age and a strained man’s voice full of threat, it’s not Spider-Kid that runs into that alley, but Miles Morales. 

Typical mugging scene- the woman’s got her pocketbook open in her hands, and a sad cloth shopping bag is lying a few feet away. The eggs are goners. 

She’s unharmed so far, but the man before her has a knife, so Miles focuses in on him. All it takes is a quick shout to distract him and a sharp jab at his elbow and the knife is skittering to the ground. Grab the arm, twist it behind, apply pressure to the wrist to force him to the ground-

He hadn’t been expecting the second knife. There’s a flash of metal and a chill breeze across his forearm and then Miles has him on the ground, one hand keeping his arm at the small of his back, and the other pressing into the man’s neck and delivering a tightly controlled shock. He and Ganke had studied for hours (and later Jeff verified their data) to find the exact voltage that would knock a threat out, and _only_ knock them out. 

That taken care of, Miles stood up to check on the woman. She’s dropped her purse and has one hand over her heart and one hand out as though reaching for him. Miles takes the loose hand carefully and leads her out of the alley, carefully guiding her to a tall decorative planter that she could lean against. 

“Are you alright ma’am?” He asks, watching nervously as she works to take several deep breaths and continues to clutch her chest. She frees her other hand from his and pats his shoulder however. 

“I’m alright child, just this old heart. I don’t take scares as well as I used to, but I'm not that fragile. Would you like me to walk you to the hospital?”

He blinks at her in confusion for a few seconds at her wording before she looks pointedly down at his arm and he remembers abruptly that oh yeah, he got a little bit stabbed back there. Whoops. 

“I’m fine.” He says automatically, and she gives him a surprisingly stern glare that has him reflectively correcting “Mami’s a nurse, she can sew it up at home.”

“And how far away is home?”

_A rooftop and a portal away._ He thinks, but definitely cannot say, so instead it’s “Brooklyn.” 

She scowls, and he remembers that he was currently in the north end of Queens. Whoops, that's a distance. 

“Are you sure you won’t go to the hospital? I can stay with you until your parents arrive if it would help.” 

He hates this part- people don’t push Spider-Kid to go to the hospital too often, but in those cases he has the mask as an obvious excuse. 

“Sorry ma’am, but I really can’t.” 

She tilts her head slightly at that. She’s considering him again, eyes roaming from his arm to his face thoughtfully. He’s not sure if he imagined her react slightly at his use of the word ‘can’t’. 

“I have a first aid kit at home.” She informs him, derailing his thoughts. “My boy’s just the same- hates going to the ER for anything. I’d even say he loathes it, the number of times I’ve found supplies missing from that kit…”

Miles tries fending her off again, but there’s something about that sharp warning look in her eyes, hidden behind the wrinkles of age that warns him against arguing further. This _is_ her compromise in place of the hospital, and he’s not getting away with anything less. 

In the end, she stands and totters away, a commanding “Come” tossed over her shoulder like he’s a wayward puppy, and he follows. Partly because that’s a mom-voice that he can’t argue with, and also because she’s still a little unsteady and he wants to make sure she gets home safely. 

“I’ll be fine dearie.” She informs him as he hurries up beside her to take her elbow. She pats his hand, but doesn’t deny the help. “I’ll be fine once I get some good chamomile in me. And once I know a certain young Good Samaritan isn’t going to bleed out from stubbornness.” 

Her hands are steady and deft as she pries the lid off the giant tote she’d wrangled out from under the bathroom sink. Miles is perched awkwardly on the edge of the bathtub, his sluggishly bleeding arm up on the sink to contain the mess. 

He can see every vein, joint, and tendon standing out in her hands as she runs water, cloth, and disinfecting wipes over the injury. Her fingertips have an odd texture as they brush over the inside of his wrist, and he’s so lost in his thoughts on how small and bird-like her old bones seem that he doesn’t notice her motions slowing to a stop. 

What he does notice is when she twists his wrist gently and murmurs softly “It’s already healing.” 

Healing factor. Shit. He freezes, tensing as he debates how best to escape. The frail, spindly fingers grasp his wrist again however, and her other hand dips down to the tote to remove gauze and bandages. 

“I’ve worked as a nurse for longer than you’ve been alive young man, I know what accelerated healing is. What it means.” Her words paused, though her hands didn’t waver in the steady wrapping. “What you probably do with it, considering how quickly you came to my aid and brought down a man twice your size.” 

“I’m- uh- I- I don’t-” Miles had no idea what do with this. 

“Don’t you bother with that now young man. I know what overwhelming strength holding back looks like too. You could have easily snapped that man’s arm like a twig if you’d really pushed.” 

She anchored the tail end of the bandage so it wouldn’t unravel, then gave him a warning look that told him without words that he wasn’t free to move yet as she methodically re-packed the kit. 

She paused only once to scowl at an open package of what Miles thought might be stitching needles, but she packed it away without a word and tucked the tote back under the sink before gesturing for Miles to follow her to the kitchen. 

“You’re being careful?” She asked as she set a small tea cup in front of him and lit the stove beneath the kettle once more. 

Miles debated trying to make a denial again, but it was like she could _sense_ the attempt before he could even open his mouth, and she turned to shoot him another warning glare that had him reconsidering his words again. 

“Yes ma’am. Careful as I can be.” 

She sighed, and Miles listened to the slow boil of the kettle for a few minutes. She didn’t speak again until the stove was off and there was chamomile tea in both of their cups. 

“I won’t ask your name, or your other name if you use one. I’m just a strange old lady, but you should tell your family if they don’t already know. Trust me, you can’t hide things like this as well as you think you can.” 

She seems so familiar, even though he doesn’t recognize the stern grey-brown eyes, or the long white hair held in a loose, messy braid at the nape of her neck. Still. 

“They know ma’am.” He reassures her. 

Her gaze softens and they sip tea in silence again after that. It’s as Miles is standing on her porch, about to wave goodbye that she speaks one more time, offering him a small slip of paper.

“If you ever get hurt out this way again, my door is always open. Give me a call, and I’ll patch you up, no questions.” 

Miles wants to say no, but he’s still being attacked by the niggling feeling that this is not a woman you say no to, so he agrees hesitantly. She seems to notice his reluctance and quirks a knowing smile at him. 

“I’ve got a lot of experience getting reckless young men to listen to me.” 

It sounds like an inside joke, so Miles offers her a smile of her own, and just because he’s feeling cheeky, turns invisible before slipping down the stairs and away. Casting a glance back over his shoulder lets him catch the tail end of a raised eyebrow, and a slow head-shake and widening smile from his rescuer. 

He’s got parents to check in with, and then a Spider-man to find, and then some notes to review at the last minute for a lit test in the morning. 

He’s not sure if he wants to run into the kinda scary old lady again though. She was kinda terrifying, in an awesome, retired-badass way. 

_Why_ is she so familiar?

May hides her smile in her cup as she listens to her nephew clattering around the kitchen, chattering on about something one of his college professors had said, about the cute dog he’d seen on the subway, and about the conversation he’d had with the grocer while picking up the eggs May had requested of him over the phone just a few minutes ago. 

She prudently did not mention that the store he was talking about was nowhere near enough for him to have arrived at her house already. 

Yes, she knew quite a bit about reckless enhanced boys who jumped into alleys to help stray civilians. The kiddo from earlier was probably about Peter’s age back then too, and she wondered briefly if she’d start hearing a new name on the news soon, or if he’d keep his head down. 

She wondered if he and Peter had met yet. 

“Aunt May? What’s so funny?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May stole the chapter. I had no control over her actions, I wanted to try focusing on the prompt for once but she would not have it. No matter how old she gets, that woman is made of steel lol.


	9. Day 9 - Swing (Spider-verse)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He could never explain it to anyone, not even among those few who knew this side of him. He couldn’t put it into words, even for himself. When he tried, it only made him sound crazy, even to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My notes on what I wanted to write for today was "Spider-man's thoughts while webswinging" and uh... I got lost? Man I'm really bad at sticking to my plans with these lol (at least I'm managing to keep up though- the challenge is kinda exciting! Almost one-third of the way through the month!

Freefall. 

Sometimes, when the city’s quiet (as quiet as it can be, being the city that never sleeps), he likes to climb the tallest buildings, stand at the very peak and look out over the terrain. His own, massive playground to scale and explore, to discover every hidden nook and cranny. 

There’s a peace in it, sitting up above everything, sharp eyes able to pick out the ant-sized figures down below as they all walked on through their lives. Little threads of life that made up the weave of his city. 

And then, when his heart felt like it was going to burst with the feeling he couldn’t name, he’d stand. Sometimes he’d do something fancy like a flip, but most times he simply let himself roll forward, and then he was free. 

He could never explain it to anyone, not even among those few who knew this side of him. He couldn’t put it into words, even for himself. When he tried, it only made him sound crazy, even to himself. 

The city was a tapestry of a million little threads, and each thread was an entire human life- their joys, their sorrows, their happiness and their pain. Twinning with other threads and passing each other for a single stitch before never meeting again. 

And when he looked over his city, and went into freefall like this? He reveled in the knowledge that he was yet another thread in the weave. Touching as many other lives as he could, keeping them safe so they could continue weaving their stories into the city. 

He’d fall until the last second when his sixth sense shifted from a hum to a holler, and he’d shoot out a web and then he was up and out and above, the borderline pain in his shoulder from the shift in vector grounding him. 

His ears would catch the shouts from the ground below, and sometimes a cheer, and it made his heart swell ever larger. 

Swinging up up up, slowing, another web and down down down, weaving his body through the air as he pushed himself, sometimes pushing the arcs and dips to the max, sometimes his forward momentum until he was racing the birds around him, the trains below.

It was freeing. Exhilarating. And yet as free as he felt, it was also at these times that he felt the most connected to his city. 

Because he was Spider-Man. New York belonged to Spider-Man, same as Spider-Man belonged to New York.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently writing before I've finished my first cup of coffee makes me really uhh... introspective? Probably not the right word, but eh. Kept it vague on exactly which spider-man this is because in a way it's not just one. Now it's late though so here ya go friends :)


	10. Day 10 - Pattern (Dragon-verse)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She was something beautiful that was never meant to be contained. He loved watching her, but once he’d made that realization he knew she couldn’t stay. She wasn’t meant to be chained down to their level, trapped beneath the earth, this beautiful shard of space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all I got hella ambitions for Saturday's prompt and I have no idea what's gonna happen but it's already starting to unravel in my brain and it's a terrible, beautiful trainwreck that I have no control over lol. I'mma chug so much coffee while I write that day, I'mma start seeing sounds XD ((Don't worry- I'll dilute it with hella water intake, 'cause that's _self care_ XD ))
> 
> Also on a not-exhausted-brain note, I wrote this one on my phone, which really likes to autocorrect random words for me? So if you notice a really random word where it should be just uh... Bear with it lol.

During the time Hugo simply called “The Before”, it had been her pelt that had caught his attention first. He was nothing more than a janitor, a lowly little adolescent coatl with scruffy orange feathers who’d all but fallen into a job above his grade. 

Late into the night, when the scientists were going over their data and running purely on coffee and he was left alone to mop and dust the observation chamber, he’d pause just to watch her. Her form shimmered and wavered, sometimes looking like a dragon, sometimes like a nebulous shard of sky, broken off and pulled inside. Stars twinkled, and during one week he could track a tiny little comet as it traveled across her being. 

Later, with enough watching, he’d realize she twisted in such ways because she was in pain. She was something beautiful that was never meant to be contained. He loved watching her, but once he’d made that realization he knew she couldn’t stay. She wasn’t meant to be chained down to their level, trapped beneath the earth, this beautiful shard of space. 

So he tore his eyes away from her, and watched the scientists. He was small, unimportant to them, and they ignored him so long as his job was done and he wasn’t underfoot. 

He learned how they controlled the containment. He learned what their codes meant. He learned how to adjust the restraints that kept her bound. 

He learned how to free her. 

That last night, he didn’t bother to clean. There were cameras- pretending he wasn’t the culprit would never succeed. He had no chance of getting away, but she… She would be back where she belonged, sparkling up among the stars once more. It wasn’t his right to keep her here- it wasn’t anyone’s right. 

He typed the code in, looked back and drank in her beauty one last time, and then executed the command. And she burst free. 

-

The lab was gone. 

He didn’t know what happened, or how, but when he came to, he was miles away, and alone. He didn’t try to go back, but he found out later that where the lab had once been was simply a broken, scorched crater. No survivors, they said. No one knew what had happened, they said. Probably an accident, they said. 

He didn’t bother to correct them. He simply looked up to the bright, beautiful night sky, whispered a soft thank you, and left. 

-

It was years later when he saw her again. He thought it was a dream- she was as beautiful and terrible as he remembered. A great, shifting expanse of the night sky, slivered and freed into the sunlight to sparkle in gold and red and deeper, unnameable colors. 

And at the same time she was a dragon. No longer the screaming patchwork figure she’d been forced into, her shape was long and lithe and whole, glittering with the stars that danced across her illusion of scales. 

“You.” She spoke, and the words echoed, reverberated in a thousand voices, amused and melodic and soft for all the vastness of it. “You. Freed me.” 

So many things he wanted to say. But he kept them all back, and gave her the one truth he’d come to. 

“You were something that was never meant to be bound.” 

The expanse shifted and starbursts bloomed, the dragon smiled. 

“You. Are interesting. And so. Fleeting. Small. Insignificant. And yet.” A shred of starlight, a claw reached out, offered openly. “Come. Dance. With me.”

He didn't know what it meant. What she offered. He rested a paw in hers and felt his frail mortal body burn away in an instant. The power contained in her form, the light of the stars and the darkness of space danced a wild waltz around his little soul, and he felt her mirth, her delight at such a curious little thing as himself. And she showed him the stars that imprinted themselves upon his scales, and she led him through vast expanses he’d only ever been able to dream of. 

And in return, he showed her the beautiful things of his own home. The first little flowers in spring. The laughter of hatchlings at play. An elder dragon, reciting a tale of old to a crowd of new, eager ears. 

And together, they danced.


	11. Day 11 - Snow (Dragon-verse)

Annashi wasn’t sure if she was cut out for motherhood. 

She adored her little charge, for sure, would happily maim anyone who thought to lay a claw on the energetic little cub, but Shannara herself? The cub never slept! 

Well, that wasn’t quite true. She’d sleep for a few hours at night. Sometimes a nap during the day for just a few minutes, though those were pretty rare. No, she slept for those short stretches, but the entire rest of the time she was just… going. Running after whatever had caught her attention, rattling on about everything she knew and every question she could think of, and even when she was still she vibrated with barely-contained energy. 

Annashi had learned at a young age to conserve her energy as much as possible, never running the risk of running out when she’d desperately need it to get _away_. But her child never got tired like that. She slept hard and heavy for those few hours that she did, but it was so sparse, where was all the energy coming from?

Case in point, right now. There were somewhere to the northeast of the ice fields currently, and she’d been so focused on digging out a nest for the evening, she hadn’t kept too close an eye on Nara. She could hear the high giggles so she knew her daughter was close but… 

A brown plume popped up from a near-invisible hole in the thick blanket of snow, and Annashi had a second to make eye contact before Shannara giggled and ducked back into the hole. 

“What are you up to little one?” Annashi called, eyes tracking the sound of the high, excited chirruping. The snow wasn’t moving, but Nara was. 

Her head popped up out of another hole closer to Annashi. 

“Look what I made!” She called, ducking under the snow again and moving in another direction, and Annashi realized the cub must have honeycombed the entire field with little tunnels. 

“Come see!” The cub called out. “It’s really pretty and glowing in here!” 

“Nara, I’m too big.”

Nara’s head popped out again, looking between the massive shape of her adoptive mother and then down at the tunnel that was just big enough for her little lithe body to fit though. She ducked down again and reappeared near a large packed mound which she quickly scrambled up to use as a launchpad- gliding over her creation to land on Annashi’s shoulder before clambering up the spikes to reach her favorite perch atop her mother’s head. 

“Someday you’ll be too big to sit up there little one.” 

Shannara bent her head over Annashi’s ridge to look her upside down in the eye. 

“Nu-uh.” She retorted. “We’re gonna stay like this forever. You said!”

Annashi kept her head level as she gently laid down in the small space she’d cleared of snow. 

“You will grow too big to sit on my head like this, but you will always be my little one, and I will always be your mother.”


	12. Day 12 - Dragon (multi-verse)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two young dragons Miles and Gwen just wanted to ask their chemistry teacher Professor Parker a few questions. They did not want to get attacked by a magi-tech portal leading who-knows-where. 
> 
> -
> 
> Jefferson Davis thought he'd gotten numbed to the weirdness that landed in his city, what with the constant comings and goings of various inter-dimensional vigilantes. 
> 
> And then two dragons fell out of the sky. Because of course they did. 
> 
> (TO BE CONTINUED)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Uh. It's 2am on the 13th? I couldn't finish, so I'll be posting the full story once I can get back and neaten it up during November but like. I had a lot of fun going mental with this- the unfinished mess I have in my file right now for _just_ this prompt is about 3,500 words long? But I can't finish rn, so I'll have to leave it with a cliffhangar, sorry! Hopefully it's a good hook though! Like I said, I had fun going crazy with my babies <3

~~~~~ Dragon-verse ~~~~~

He really knew better, honestly. Hanging out in Professor Parker’s lab was a hazard on a good day- the older spiral dragon liked to use idle claws as extra flask-holders, especially when he was chasing an idea and strung out on caffeine. 

It was both safer and more dangerous when Murdock and Wilson were in the lab too. Safer, because a stray student could simply tuck themselves into a clear area and receive off-handed answers to questions from the owner of the lab, but also more dangerous because Matt, Wade, and Peter in the same room were a dangerous force of chaos that would only allow itself to be contained 13% of the time. And 11% of that was purely Mr. Nelson, who rarely executed his strange power over them anyway. 

But walking into Parker’s lab only to find the soot-dusted mane of Tony Stark with his face sunken into some strange device was definitely not a safe situation to be in. 

Miles froze in the doorway, wondering what the safest escape route was. He definitely didn’t want to go forward, and he could feel Gwen trying to nudge one of his wings out of the way to see what had stopped him. 

Worse, Miles knew that behind her was Professor Parker, whom they’d managed to corner in the cafeteria. Any second now-

“STARK!” 

There was a crash as Stark flinched at the loud snarl, and something else clattered as he worked to extricate himself from whatever technological nightmare he’d built in the other dragon’s lab. 

“Ah. Parker. Thought you were out for the day.” His eyes, beneath the soot and grease stains that he never could seem to be rid of, were bright and manic. Miles wasn’t sure if he should be concerned or amused by just how many of the teachers at Corona University had that same habit of stringing themselves out on coffee and the raw energy of inventing. 

“Get out of my lab you overgrown menace.” Parker snarled, flapping his wings to get above the two students blocking the door and nearly hitting the ceiling before he twisted himself to a table. 

“Mine hasn’t been cleared yet- Sal will impale me if I hack the lock again. She even told me so this morning. Complete with impaling instruments.” Tony huffed and tried to turn back to whatever he was building, but Parker had leapt up and landed on the machine, mantling his wings and hissing. 

“My lab! I don’t invade that junkyard you call your workshop, and you keep your grease and nonsense away from my chemicals. Get out!” 

“Calm down Parker.” Stark huffed, reaching up and trying to pry the smaller dragon off his machine. “I’ll have my results done by midnight and then I can dismantle it again.” 

His thick armored gloves were probably the only thing keeping him from getting bitten, though it certainly wasn’t stopping Parker from trying. 

“Last time you said that I ended up with four multiversal variants of _myself_ crowding my lab!” He snarled, writhing again to escape and managing to eel himself out of Stark’s claws, much to the large imperial's exasperation. 

“We should get out of here.” Gwen hissed over Miles’s shoulder, and the younger dragon nodded in agreement. They should probably find one of the faculty supervisors to separate Parker and Stark before something else happened. Again. 

Most of the new Peters that now inhabited the campus were pretty cool, but Miles imagined having four Peter Parkers _and_ four Tony Starks would probably lead to the entire university getting wiped from Sorienth’s lands. 

Unfortunately, just as he was backing away, something got nudged in the scuffle inside the lab, and Stark’s strange machine began whirring and- slightly more worrying- glowing. Oh joy- he’d been playing with magi-tech again. Miles had enough time to think “I should request a transfer” before a multicolored light enveloped him. 

-

~~~~~ Spider-verse ~~~~~

Jeff got the call first. 

Technically the police station did- a sudden flood of agitated 911 calls from normally unflappable New Yorkers. 

Serpents. Aliens. Dragons. No-one knew what it was, but apparently there was something flying around the city. Not causing any damage yet, thankfully. 

So Jeff wasn’t too surprised when the captain stared pointedly at him while briefing them on the situation. Jeff was the go-to for weird spider-related things, which had apparently been upgraded to all weird-things. Probably because he had 3 different spider-vigilantes on speed dial. 

(The station pretended they totally didn’t know about the speed dial thing, and he appreciated it, even though he was pretty sure they’d already figured out Spider-Kid’s identity ages ago. Subtle, his son was not.)

So Jeff found himself in a helicopter that was hovering warily in the air a good distance from the long, twisting shapes that were weaving through the air and circling the city. 

He wasn’t sure what was weirder- the fact that they definitely did look like dragons (admittedly closer to the long snake-like images of dragons from china, rather than the usual bulky European-styled ones) or the fact that they seemed to be wearing clothes. The lighter one even seemed to have on a lab coat. 

The dragons circled each other for a few minutes as the helicopter kept its distance, and then they were parting, snaking their way through the air to circle the helicopter. 

“What should I do?” The pilot called over their headsets, and- to Jeff’s exasperation- all eyes seemed to land on him. 

He watched as the dragons circled the helicopter, noting how one got too close to the down-wash and pulled back, head tilting in a familiar motion he recognized from countless masked faces. 

Curiosity. 

“I don’t think they mean harm. Let’s land and see if they follow.” 

The pilot hesitated and then nodded, his co-pilot radioing in with air control to find a pad they could touch down on. 

The dragons did indeed follow them down, touching down on the ground well away from the slowing blades. No-one was quite ready to exit the heli yet though, so they watched as the dragons huddled and eyed the machine before the smaller, darker one ducked low and crawled closer, head tilting side to side in observation. 

Now that they were on the ground, Jeff could get a better look at them. The one approaching was definitely smaller- perhaps younger? Bright, wide blue eyes, mostly black scales with some red striping on the belly, and glittering dark red wings- six pairs, with the first and last pair connected to the legs. 

It seemed to be wearing an over-sized shirt with runes printed large and blocky right across the front, bright blue lettering on the grey fabric. 

The one that was hanging back had deep pink eyes, and a white-black striped pattern running lengthwise all the way down the body from what Jeff could see, with pink wings. This one had- of all things!- a pair of goggles perched atop its head, and a lab coat fitting tightly to the long, long body. 

The dark one reached the edge of the helicopter’s rotors and sniffed, then very gently opened its mouth and nibbled. At that, the larger one stiffened, opened its own mouth and- 

“Don’t _bite_ it!”

“Chill out- it’s not alive, it’s some kind of machine!” 

They. They talked. Because of course they did. It was a little hard to tell with the pitches, but Jeff was pretty sure the far one was female and the near one was male. The male slunk back to his companion, twisting back to give the helicopter a few more curious looks as the female pressed their heads close to whisper furiously. 

Jeff had to take several deep breaths to brace himself before he slid the door open and stepped out onto the roof, approaching the dragons slowly. The female spotted him first, reaching out and hitting the male’s shoulder while twisting her head in Jeff’s direction. 

The female kept her posture straight, exuding wariness, but the male ducked his head low, tilting it curiously as he wriggled along the ground to get closer. 

“Hello.” Jeff greeted, at a loss for how else to proceed, and the dragon’s head reared up in surprise, little ears that Jeff hadn’t noticed below the sweeping horns flicking up. 

“It talks!” He twisted around to his companion, his tail tip twitching. “It talks!” He chirruped again. She dropped her head into her claws and actually groaned. 

“My name is Jeff.” He paused when the dragons looked back at him curiously. “I’m uh. I’m a human?” 

“You asking us or telling us?” The female snipped. “We’re spirals. And we’re not giving you our names.” 

“Wait we’re not?” The male tilted his head again. “But why? I like him!” His companion glowered and grabbed for his tail- probably to pull him away from Jeff, but the smaller dragon tucked said tail close and- Jeff assumed that expression was a scowl. The female scowled right back.

“First, he could be shadespawn for all we know! Second- from the way he’s reacting, it’s like he’s never seen a dragon before- which means we’re probably not on Sorienth anymore-”

“Could’ve told you that from what happened last time Stark activated a magi-tech machine in Professor Parker’s lab.” The male cut in cheekily. She bared her teeth and he honest-to-god _stuck his tongue out_ at her. 

“Professor Parker?” Jeff asked because… Parker? No way. These were _dragons_. 

The female was hissing, but the male nodded excitedly. 

“Yeah! Professor Parker teaches chemistry at our university! I think he dabbles in bio and mechanical too, but his lab’s primary focus is chemistry. We were gonna ask him some questions about a project on lunch, but Stark-” 

The female lunged forward, wrapping her tail around his muzzle and muffling the rest of his words, hissing “Miles, shut up!” 

They scuffled a bit, hissing at each other lowly, but Jeff wasn’t listening because… because this was his life. Honestly. He didn’t even know why he was surprised at this point. He regularly found teenagers on the ceiling in his house. His son was a vigilante. He gave relationship advice to a man from another dimension. He had legally-questionable webshooters strapped to his wrists because his kids were protective. His kids, being an assortment of other inter-dimensional vigilantes. So yeah, sure, why _not_ dragons too!?

There was a yip from the tangle in front of him and Jeff snapped out “Kids!” In his strongest dad-voice before he could overthink it. Surprisingly- or perhaps _un_-surprisingly, they both froze, pink and blue eyes turning to him cautiously. Jeff sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Do you two have a way to get back home?” 

They glanced at each other and- if her name wasn’t Gwen Jeff would eat his badge- Gwen pulled away to straighten her coat. 

“Dr. Stark’s machine activated and landed us out here, so it’ll probably take a bit more tinkering him to break reality intentionally and give us a way back.”

“Technically he _intentionally_ broke it during the Peters incident too, he just didn't know what to do with them.” Miles (what was Jeff’s life!?) chirped up, getting a glare in return. 

“Do I wanna know what the Peters incident was?” Jeff asked worriedly, and the two dragons- spirals? Was that significant?- shared a look. 

“I mean…” Gwen didn’t look inclined to elaborate, but Miles shrugged. 

“Last time Stark invaded Parker’s lab to mess with magi-technology Professor Parker got caught by the light and then suddenly we had like seven Parkers but they were all different and it was crazy.”

“There were four.” Gwen corrected. 

“And none of them were human like me?” Jeff asked, because wow, not only multiversal human spiders, but draconic spiders too? Did these two even have vigilante personas actually? He wasn’t sure if it was a coincidence that their scale colors matched up with the kids’ suits. 

They shared a look, but shook their heads in sync and Jeff had to pinch the bridge of his nose again. 

“Alright. Alright. Let me think for a second.” Step one, call Miles. And Peter and Gwen too, probably. Hoo boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, had to cut it off there- I got as far as spider-Miles meeting them, but there was no way to stop it cleanly soooo.... have a cliffhangar lol
> 
> Also as soon as my truck stops breaking random expensive pieces off, I'm 1000% commissioning art of dragon-miles and spider-miles together lol (possibly with the other dragon/spider pairs interacting too lol, but definitely the Mileses <s>to start</s> lol.


	13. Day 14 - Overgrown (Dragon-Verse)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so the order's a bit broken now. I got a bit wrung out writing so I took a break for Sunday, and then completely forgot we had training at work this week, which is exhausting mentally. I don't have enough spoons for all these loud humans locked in an echoing room for 5 hours a day and then following me out to lunch to chat more. On top of not being able to do my actual work which desperately needs doing because I'm getting 3 hours to do 8 hours of work... Hhhhh I'm tired.
> 
> So the chapter numbers won't line up nicely anymore, and the rest of this week is going to be iffy on my ability to get the mental energy to write / getting the time to write, but I'll keep doing my best!   
Hello and thank you to the few people that have been keeping an eye on this   
(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*✲ﾟ*｡⋆ I love y'all~

He wasn’t quite sure when he stopped being a regular tree, and gained a sense of self. It was before he started moving though, that’s for sure. Because he could remember the flood rushing by, tearing away at the dirt that his roots were dug into, and he could remember having the thought “I will topple if I stay here.” So he pulled up his roots, his feet, and slowly he began to walk. 

The problem with this change took longer to reveal itself. His branches twisted into a tail, into the structure of wings, and arms and legs. His needles changed too, becoming feathers, clustering by his head, and growing thick on his wings. 

Too thick. He could feel the weight of them pulling at the joints, tugging at the flexible wood, and he knew that eventually he wouldn’t be able to bend with the weight, and the whole branch wing would snap and fall. He wondered if it would hurt, and he didn’t really want to find out. 

Then one night something landed on one of his overgrown branchwings and began tugging at the needle feathers. He didn’t like moving without the sun to warm him, so his eyes were sluggish in their opening. 

There was a tiny figure burrowing into his wing, plucking at the needles that were clustered too tightly. The sensation prickled uncomfortably, but he ignored it in favor of watching curiously. The little critter seemed to be eating the greener needles and shoving the withered ones out. 

“What are you doing?” He asked as it continued to scuffle up and down his branch. A small brown head popped up and out. 

“Looking for a nest.” The thing chirped, ducking back down. 

He pondered that for a while. 

“Is that going to be your nest now?” The creature popped its head out of the feathers again, tilting side to side. 

“Yes.” It said derisively after a pause. 

Several of the more withered needles were thrown out, and slowly he began to sink down, the odd prickling fading into something soothing. As he felt his eyes drift close as he settled into a comfortable stand, he muttered “What are you called?” 

Again the creature peeked out to look at him before speaking. 

“Last home called me Moss.” The critter informed him. 

“Am I your new home?” Moss nodded excitedly. 

“New home tastes good. What’s new home called?” 

Good question. He hadn’t needed a name before. 

“I think I was a conifer tree, before I woke up.” 

“New home is Conifer!” The creature- Moss- chirped happily. “Moss and Conifer, Conifer and Moss!” Conifer was almost asleep by the time Moss apparently decided that particular branch was neatened up enough, and tiny little claws skittered across the bark on his back as the critter dove into his other overgrown wingbranch. The meticulous plucking, trimming, grooming, lulled Conifer to sleep.


	14. Day 16 - Wild (Spider-verse)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Alright.” Rio agreed, turning back. “But if there’s any problems you call us or come home immediately, understood?” 
> 
> Miles let out a whoop and jumped so high he nearly bounced his head off the ceiling. Gwen huffed a small laugh at him, trying and failing to hide an amused smile. Ganke dropped his head into his hands, letting out a choked laugh. 
> 
> “This is going to be a disaster.” He muttered, voice muffled by his palms. 
> 
> Again. Rude child. This was gonna be great.
> 
> \-----
> 
> Peter takes the spiderlings (and Ganke) on a camping trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Work has been hell this past week, so I neglected all other prompts to go completely ham on this one :D ((You might be able to catch when the style changes because it was a different day and different mood lol))
> 
> So, when I was doing the outline for this, the only thing I had was “Peter takes the kids camping. They build spiderwebs in the woods for fun and then the internet finds them and decide acromantula lol”. Somehow Ganke invited himself without my noticing, then Pete took them shopping, then there was firewood collecting and stars to look at and caves to explore and I kinda gave up plotting after the firewood thing and let Pete run around the woods with his merry band of smalls unsupervised. 
> 
> AKA I had a ton of fun writing this and it got out of hand as a result and I have no regrets. (Also Ganke, I love Ganke, I’m having so much fun with this child!)

Peter remembers going camping once, with Uncle Ben and Aunt May, two years before the spider bite. The memories are fogged by decades past, but he’s sure even the rose-tinted glasses of time couldn’t fake the happiness he’d felt, trying to start a fire in a circle of rocks, gnawing on an under-cooked hot-dog on a stick and a marshmallow that was more ash than it was fluff. May gutting bananas to stuff their s’mores ingredients in and wrapping the monstrosity in tinfoil and eating the resulting mess with a spoon and chasing Ben around the campfire with it teasingly. 

They’d somehow ended up at a hotel at two in the morning when the sky opened up in a torrential downpour anyway, but that was still fun too. They’d pulled out all their packed blankets, and the linens off the hotel beds and made little camping nests on the floor. 

They’d agreed they should absolutely do it again. 

They never got the chance. 

Gwen stared at him flatly like he was insane. That was fair, even though he’d never admit it. Miles seemed intrigued at least- he was studying the bag that contained the tent that Peter had dropped on the kitchen floor, head tilting side to side as he did so. 

His buddy Ganke looked like he was torn between dying of excitement or dying of horror. He’d been a huge fan of Spider-Man, right up until he started regularly interacting with ‘you dumbass arachnids’. And Peter had to admit that yeah, that was fair too. If also extremely rude. What was with these teenagers and being rude anyway? He’d say Miles was the only well-behaved one but that would be a horrific lie too because the littlest spider (“I am not the littlest spider Peter shut up! Peni’s shorter _and_ younger than me!”) could throw some impressive shade when he got going. 

“It’ll be fun!” He insisted, turning his gaze to the ultimate authority in the room. Rio crossed her arms and chewed on her lip in thought for a moment, and then made up her mind. She looked to Jeff to check his decision- he dropped his own crossed arms and nodded back at her. 

“Alright.” She agreed, turning back. “But if there’s any problems you call us or come home immediately, understood?” 

Miles let out a whoop and jumped so high he nearly bounced his head off the ceiling. Gwen huffed a small laugh at him, trying and failing to hide an amused smile. Ganke dropped his head into his hands, letting out a choked laugh. 

“This is going to be a disaster.” He muttered, voice muffled by his palms. 

Again. Rude child. This was gonna be great.

“Dude.” 

Nope. 

“Dude.” 

Silence child. 

“Parker.” 

Ooo, that one was a full-on hiss. 

“Lee.” Peter hissed back, throwing another package of hot dogs at Miles’s tagalong. Ganke caught it with a deadpan, handing it to Miles without looking and ignoring as his friend twisted and chucked it down the aisle to where Gwen was catching up with the cart from her condiment-hunting adventure. Peter assessed her haul critically, and decided that yeah, that would probably be enough ketchup. Ooo, relish and mustard too, getting fancy- and cheese? What the heck was that jar of brown stuff though? Weird child. Still- anything was edible if you eat it fast enough. 

“We can’t survive off hot dogs.” Ganke insisted again, still catching the next package and passing it along. 

“We won’t be!” Peter insisted. “That’s what the other stuff’s for!”

“S’mores are not a meal-food Mr. Parker.” 

_Ugggghhh._

In the deepest corner of his mind, Peter was actually kinda glad Ganke had invited himself along on their trip. Vague memories from over two decades ago were not as useful for planning a camping trip as Peter had hoped. According to the non-spider-child, pulling over on a random roadside and setting up a tent at a cool-looking bend in a river was ‘trespassing’ and ‘illegal’. He looked up a forest upstate that allowed overnight camping, and then plugged his phone into the rented car to use the GPS app. (Peter had been hoping for a bus trip like when he and Miles went to Alchemax, but Rio had immediately forbade that plan and threatened to call Aunt May, which was totally playing dirty by the way.)

So Peter drove, following the flat British accent that told him where to turn, and griping that he would turn the car around when the kids tried to play some weird music on the radio. Driver is driving, so driver gets to pick the music. “Shotgun shuts his cakehole.” Gwen muttered under her breath, and Ganke gasped dramatically and pointed mutely at her until she punched him lightly with a scowl. Miles looked between them in confusion until Gwen threatened to punch him too, and Peter threatened to turn on the both of them if they didn’t let him focus before he missed a turn. He was pretty rusty with this whole ‘driving’ thing after all. That got them to quiet down. 

For about thirty seconds.

It was a long drive. 

After four hours on the road and thirty seconds in the ‘parking lot’ field, Peter was beginning to have a few second thoughts. Gwen was perched on a fence post having a staring contest with what might have been a raccoon, or maybe an opossum, and Miles was- uh. Hmm. 

Peter glanced around quickly. Ganke had the tent bag hitched over his shoulder, and was still safely standing by the car. He also had a judgmental eyebrow aimed at Peter, who glowered back at the rude child. Then Ganke pointed up, and Peter looked up and oh yeah, there was Miles. 

It took several minutes for him to wrangle all three children (most of the time was spent trying to pelt Miles with acorns to get him to come back down the tree he’d scaled) and they hiked up the narrow trail that led to the campsite. On arriving at the clearing, Ganke informed the three spiders that he didn’t trust them to know what decent tinder, kindling, and firewood was, and he recruited Miles to be his wood-hauler and traipsed off into the forest, leaving Peter and Gwen to figure out the tent. 

Somehow, together they managed to get the tent up before the boys came back, so Peter and Gwen set out after them. It took several minutes and liberal use of their combined super hearing to track the boys down, but they did eventually find them. 

Ganke was seated on the ground with his back to the trunk of a large tree, flipping through the digital pages of a book on a tablet reader he’d pulled out from… somewhere. Peter couldn’t see Miles, but he could hear something large moving about in the canopy so he figured the missing spider-child had gone up again. 

Gwen went scrambling up after him, slipping a few times as she tried to figure out the best way to grip the rough textured bark that was so unlike the solid steel and brick and glass that they usually scaled. 

Peter on the other hand leaned over Ganke’s shoulder to see what he was skimming. Ganke paused just long enough to tap the screen, bringing up the book’s title before going back to flipping aggressively. 

‘City Slicker’s Guide to the Great Outdoors’ huh? 

“Looking for something specific there buddy?”

“What to do when a dumbass falls out of a tree and breaks his arm.” Ganke replied flatly without missing a beat. Almost as if on cue, there was a loud crack and a yelp from up above, and a web shooter deploying, followed by another crack, and then Miles and two large branches hit the ground several yards away. He immediately sprung back to his feet and skittered right back up the tree though, so Peter figured that was fine. 

Peter then had the very, _very_ delayed realization that he was the sole adult supervision for three children in the backass end of nowhere, two of whom had superpowers and the ability and inclination to climb everything. 

Something of his horror must have shown on his face when Ganke glanced up at him, because the seemingly only actual-responsible-one in their crew snorted so hard he choked. 

It took an hour for the kids to be lured out of the trees with the promise of food, and then another hour for Ganke to be content with the amount of wood he’d ordered the other three to carry back. 

Peter took charge of lighting the fire, and then pretended he wasn’t sulking when Ganke stepped in with a lighter and a weird-smelling brick he pulled from his duffel bag that caught fire easily after several minutes of watching Peter trying to rub sticks together as fast as possible. 

Cut him some slack- that always seemed to work on TV!

Finally though, the sun was beginning to set and they all whittled down sticks into spears to roast their hot dogs with. Then they had marshmallows and s’mores, and Peter sulked on realizing he hadn’t gotten bananas, which meant he couldn’t subject the spiderlings to May’s old creation. At least Ganke seemed familiar with what he was talking about when he described it, even if Gwen and Miles looked at the two of them like they were insane. 

Finally though, it was fully dark. Ganke poked his tablet for a few minutes, and then messed with the fire- banking it, he said, so that it would keep burning low through the night without risking it growing large and spreading and they wouldn't have to re-light it in the morning either. Before he let them sleep though, Peter led his merry band of children through the trees to a more open clearing he'd spotted earlier. And then he pointed up. 

This part was one of his most vivid memories from back then, after all. 

_“C’mon kiddo, one more thing before we tuck in. You’ll want to see this.” _

_“But Uncle Ben, it’s too dark to see anything!” _

_“That’s the point Pete. Now c’mon, I promise this’ll be worth it.”_

None of them spoke as they stared up at the spread in the sky. Peter let the three drink in the stars with a hungry awe in silence for a few minutes before he gently raised an arm, tracing invisible lines with his finger as he retold the tales, Ben and May’s voices echoing in his memory. 

He glanced down a few times, just to take in his audience’s expressions. He remembered it well- still felt it today, looking up at the vast expanse overhead. The awe, the shock, the terrifying, humbling realization that every pinprick of light was a sun, the brightly glowing band of the milky way just a tiny, visible part of the trailing arm of the galaxy their itty-bitty sun orbited. Every pinprick of light, a star, or a whole galaxy full of them. Every star the heart of a solar system, just like theirs. 

And there you were, a tiny little flicker of life, looking up and trying to comprehend the vastness of existence. 

Humbling. Terrifying. Beautiful. 

All three spiders were shivering by the time they got back to the campsite, and Ganke roused the fire long enough for them to get feeling back in their extremities before banking it again and wriggling into his cocoon of a sleeping bag. Peter, Miles, and Gwen followed shortly after, and they all quickly drifted off into sleep. 

Waking up was a pain. Literally. Peter snarled quietly as he squirmed, trying to stretch while buried under tangled teenager limbs. 

Why had he thought sharing a tent with three teenagers would be a good idea? Nevermind that it was big enough for six, that wasn’t the problem. There was plenty of room, and yet Miles was completely on top of his chest, bent backwards in his sprawl. Ganke was under Miles’s legs, still wrapped securely in his cocoon and pressed against Peter’s arm, which was numb from the crooked angle he’d slept on it. Even Gwen- she’d worked her arms free of her sleeping bag in her sleep and now had Peter’s legs wrapped securely in her grasp like a pair of long bony teddy bears. 

Peter wriggled again in an attempt to stretch and/or free himself, and was rewarded by Gwen kicking his armpit and Miles rolling from his chest to his stomach with a sleepy snarl and a headbutt to the gut. 

At least his pained wheeze got Ganke to wake up. One of three, success. 

Actually, scratch that. Not a success- failure. Epic failure. Rewind, rewind! Ganke sat up, looked at the pile, and wriggled out from under Miles’s legs, pulling his phone out of his bag and taking an obscene amount of pictures while Peter hissed at him. 

The kid just smirked and slunk out of the tent, leaving Peter to his fate. 

It took a lot more squirming and a handful of muttered curses before the other two children woke up, and then it was a breakfast of hot dogs and oatmeal. Peter had no idea how or when Ganke had acquired oatmeal (probably the magic duffel bag of preparedness), but he had to grudgingly admit that yeah, maybe the kid had been right about Peter’s ability to plan meals. 

Not that he’d admit it. Ever. Shut up with that smug face child. 

Peter used his fingers and his spidey sense to make sure every ember in the circle of stones was snuffed out while Ganke directed Miles and Gwen on how to tie up the food and tuck it into the trees so their camp wouldn’t be raided by animals while they were gone. 

And then Peter got to lead his merry band of smalls through the trees to the next fun thing. 

Spelunking was a bust, as he quickly found out. Miles at least had an odd affinity for the deep, echoing caves, and delighted in shouting randomly and scaring the crap out of the others while he listened to the echoes call back. 

Peter survived being underground for exactly seven minutes before he had to grab Ganke’s collar and scooped Miles up under his arm to book it back to the surface- Gwen only too happy to escape herself and needing no encouragement. 

They started climbing the cliffs around the caves instead. The spiderlings were fascinated by how their sticky powers felt and worked on the different stones, somehow getting entranced by sticking and unsticking their hands from different veins of stone in the sheer wall. 

They had to throw themselves into the trees when a small group of hikers passed by so as to avoid having to explain the whole climbing-vertical-walls-without-climbing-gear thing, and afterwards they set out deeper into the trees to find more entertainment. 

More entertainment revealed itself in Gwen spotting and pointing out a picture-perfect spider web that spread between two tree branches. She and Peter kept a healthy distance from the creator of the web, but Miles for some reason had no such healthy awareness of the evilness of their cousins and was hovering over the multi-legged weaver in fascination. 

“We should build a web.” He decided abruptly. 

Ganke spent several minutes looking up different spiderweb patterns before Gwen stood up and informed them they were all spiders so they didn’t need a guide. They used one of the middle-life web formulas- the webs would last long enough for them to really build with, and then dissolve sometime during the night and be gone by morning. They spent hours on it, testing branch strengths, shooting lines and working half on logic and half on a quiet, whispered instinct. 

The webs lost their stickiness as they dried, enabling Ganke to start climbing them, albeit with quite a bit more difficulty than the nimble spiders above him. The web, when they finally deemed it complete, was truly massive- encompassing nearly 20 trees spread across a 75’ range, and reaching from just a few feet off the ground to the very height of the canopy. 

They spent a lot of time seeing how quickly they could race from one end to the other, from the top to the bottom and back again, and slowly that evolved into a game of inter-web tag. 

Super-metabolisms came after them with a vengeance however, and they left their impromptu playground to return to the campsite, pulling down the food and relighting the fire once more as the sun began to disappear into the leaves of the trees and the sky faded to a riot of purple and orange. 

Another dinner that polished off the last of their hoard of hot-dogs, and then a buffet of s’mores, and the stars were out once more. This time they re-found the cliffs and wove a thick hammock nest at the top of the largest crevice, big enough for all four of them to pile in. 

They gazed up at the stars, telling stories both of legend and imagination, and when the web began to weaken (they’d run out of the longer-lasting stuff on their earlier project), they returned to the campsite for the final time, nesting down into a heap and drifting off to sleep. 

It felt weird to pack up in the morning. The ashes were scooped out of the fire pit and scattered out of the way, the tent was balled up and wrangled back into the bag with minimal swearing, and they hiked back to where they’d left the rented car. 

Ganke used his phone to look up a restaurant with a breakfast buffet that was in the right direction, and he delighted in taking stealthy pictures of the horrified looks the waitstaff were sharing as the spiders descended upon the 15th plate of pancakes with gusto. 

Another painfully long ride which involved Peter twisting around long enough to web the children to their seats when he realized Miles was trying to goad Gwen into climbing out the sunroof on the highway. 

Forests gave way to fields, which gave way to scattered houses, which gave way to houses lined neatly in rows, taller and taller as they got closer to the city, to home. 

And then they were back. Dropping off Ganke first before returning the rental car and roof-hopping back to the Davis-Morales household. 

Back among the gleaming skyscrapers and noise and bustle of the City That Never Sleeps, the weekend in the woods felt almost like a dream. 

Peter watched as Miles and Gwen bounced, excitedly retelling their adventures to an amused Jeff and Rio, and he could feel a smile tugging at his face. 

Uncle Ben’s voice echoing up from memory, and the memory of a hand ruffling his hair. _'We should do this again sometime.'_

They would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Realizing you _are_ the adult supervision after all the adultier-adults are gone will never not be a horrifying revelation lol. Poor Peter :3
> 
> There's a few chapters that I almost want to pull out of this collection so I can add them to the Spider-Stories series properly (namely Ring, Frail, and this one- Wild), but I think that would be considered double-posting them, since they're here already? 
> 
> Anyway, training week with sensory-hell supervisor is finally over, so hopefully I'll be in a better headspace for the rest of the month to get the rest of the prompts done :)


End file.
